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Pamela Shumba Chronicle Reporter
CIVIL servants yesterday rejected the government’s offer to raise their pay by between $50 and $100 across grades. Unions demanded that ministers review the offer upwards, and table a final proposal tomorrow.Coming out of the meeting with government officials in Harare, union leaders told Chronicle that the proposed pay rise was not commensurate with the Poverty Datum Line (PDL) estimated around $540.
Civil servants’ unions are demanding that the lowest paid worker, currently paid $297, should earn at least $540. But the government, union leaders said, proposed a $79 increase for the lowest paid workers such as office orderlies and messengers.
Grades D1 to D5, mainly teachers who account for about 60 percent of the civil service, it was proposed, would get $54, bringing their pay up to $500 from $446.
Grades E1 to E5, made up of deputy directors, directors and their seniors, were offered $92 bringing their earnings to $623 from about $521.
Transport and housing allowances remained unchanged, it emerged. Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta) chief executive officer Sifiso Ndlovu said: “We failed to agree on the most important issue, which is salaries. The government argued that the PDL was at $500, which is wrong.
They offered a percentage of the PDL, which is not acceptable. We then told them to go back and restructure the salary offer before we meet again on Friday.”
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) spokesman Enock Paradzayi said the government offer fell far short of their expectations.
“We went for the meeting and we were not happy with what the government offered. A salary increment of $54 is far short of our expectations,” he said.
“This defeats the whole purpose of the de-bunching that they were talking about just yesterday. We have since agreed to adjourn to Friday morning. Our interest is to agree on a favourable salary offer before we discuss other issues.”
Public Service Association (PSA) president Cecilia Alexander said the meeting was fruitful although they did not agree with the proposed increases.
“The meeting went on well, but I think we must appreciate that this is a process not an event. The government came with a salary offer that we did not agree with and we have since asked them to review the offer,” she said by telephone from Harare.
“On a positive note, government has come up with a housing scheme for low income earners, which we have adopted and agreed on in principle.
“They have also come up with an investment trust to economically empower government workers.”
Ndlovu, however, said there was consensus on the need to roll out a housing scheme for all government workers.
“We only agreed on one of the non-monetary incentives that we had demanded, which is housing. The government promised that it would roll out a housing scheme and we accepted,” he said.
“We are therefore expecting a new salary offer on Friday, which we might be forced to take considering the situation that we are in.”
The ruling Zanu-PF party’s politburo recently said the lowest-paid civil servants would be paid no less than the PDL — but senior ministers believe the PDL of $540 pegged by Zimstats is “fictitious”.
The government says however long the negotiations will take, the salary increase — once agreed — will be backdated to this month.
Online Reporter